Chapter 63: The Soldiers' Meal

After the morning training ended, Zhu Gaoxu arrived at the secondary quarters, which was the place where the soldiers ate.

From far away, Zhu Gaoxu watched the rising cooking smoke, but he did not smell the fragrance of food; instead, there was a musty, moldy odor.

Frowning as he arrived at the cookhouse, Zhu Gaoxu finally saw the soldiers' meal.

It was a large pot of blackish, unidentified mush with specks of white in it.

And that moldy odor was emanating precisely from those pots.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Gaoxu was furious and immediately ordered Mao Xiang to call all the cooks over.

There was nothing to say; Zhu Gaoxu pointed at the moldy stuff in the pot and said, "Is this stuff meant for human consumption?"

"My soldiers are sweating and training on the drill ground, and you feed them this?"

"Or is it that because you heard me say I would eat and live with the soldiers, you are feeding me this to poison me?"

Hearing these words from Zhu Gaoxu, several cooks were so frightened they immediately knelt on the ground, repeatedly saying, "We dare not."

One elderly cook gathered his courage and carefully replied, "Your Highness the Prince, you have misunderstood us. The grain and fodder in the army are distributed by designated personnel; we only do the cooking, and we cook whatever is given to us."

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu's anger subsided slightly, realizing that this matter likely could not be blamed on these cooks.

"Get up first." Zhu Gaoxu was not an unreasonable person; he let the cooks stand up first, and there was no need for them to continue cooking.

This food was simply not fit for human consumption; even if it were cooked, no one would eat it.

There was definitely something fishy about this; Zhu Gaoxu only had to turn his mind a little to know that Hu Weiyong's shadow was surely involved.

It was no wonder Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on killing Hu Weiyong, and even executing his nine generations.

This person was truly too arrogant!

However, Zhu Gaoxu also understood that there were certainly others involved.

Such matters were likely just a word from Hu Weiyong, and the people below would naturally do it.

Right now, Zhu Gaoxu could not touch Hu Weiyong, but dealing with the small fries below was no problem.

Did they really think he, Zhu Gaoxu, had no one and was easy to bully?

Not to mention that he was currently favored by Zhu Yuanzhang, don't forget that his father was also a Feudatory Prince, a proper Prince.

His maternal grandfather, Xu Da, was also a Great General, and in terms of military power, there were only one or two people in the imperial court who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

But now was not the time to think about these things; with mealtime approaching, the most important thing was to solve the problem of the soldiers' meals.

Zhu Gaoxu had not expected that such a big incident would happen on the very first day.

This wasn't just one or two mouths waiting to eat; this was over two thousand people, not something that could be solved just by opening one's mouth.

Without further delay, Zhu Gaoxu had the Embroidered Uniform Guard prepare a carriage, then entered the city and headed straight for the Wei State Duke Mansion.

Now was not the time to be polite; when there is trouble, how normal it is to find one's backing.

Arriving at the Wei State Duke Mansion, Zhu Gaoxu marched straight in.

Arriving at Xu Da's Study, Zhu Gaoxu pushed the door open and entered, seeing his maternal grandfather.

"Grandfather, someone is bullying me!"

Ever since he had cried in front of Zhu Yuanzhang last time, Zhu Gaoxu had understood that the child who cries gets the milk.

As soon as he came up, Zhu Gaoxu shed tears, then looked at Xu Da with a pitiful expression.

Xu Da had initially been about to get angry at someone trespassing in his study, but seeing it was Zhu Gaoxu, his expression softened, and then seeing Zhu Gaoxu's pitiful expression, his heart ached even more.

Seeing someone bullying his grandson, Xu Da said directly, "Xi'er, don't cry. Tell Grandfather who bullied you, and Grandfather will stand up for you!"

This was exactly what Zhu Gaoxu wanted.

Without beating around the bush, Zhu Gaoxu said directly, "Grandson has only just taken over the New Army, and someone is already bullying me."

"Today, Grandson went to the secondary quarters to check the military rations and discovered that what they gave me was old, moldy grain; the food made from it is something even beasts wouldn't eat."

"Grandson knows that to command troops, one must eat and live with the soldiers. Now that someone is bullying Grandson like this, Grandson feels wronged!"

Hearing these words from Zhu Gaoxu, Xu Da frowned.

Someone doing this was definitely looking to cause trouble for Zhu Gaoxu.

There were many people who could do this; after all, it was just the rations for some new recruits.

The current organizations managing soldiers' rations were somewhat complex; the Ministry of War had the authority to manage them, the Ministry of Revenue had the authority to manage them, and needless to say, the Chancellor also had the authority.

And there were many officials under the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War who could get their hands in.

But although there were many people, few dared to do this.

Not to mention someone with Zhu Gaoxu's status, even an ordinary Thousand-Man Commander was not a low-ranking position among military officers; who would be bored enough to go to the trouble of creating a powerful enemy?

Thinking this, Xu Da asked suspiciously, "Have you offended anyone recently?"

Zhu Gaoxu wiped away the tears he had squeezed out and replied with a slight sob, "Grandson previously had some unpleasantness with the Left Chancellor, Hu Weiyong."

Xu Da knew about Zhu Gaoxu confronting Hu Weiyong in the street.

It could be said that most officials in Jingcheng had heard about it to some extent.

After all, one was the current Left Chancellor of the dynasty, and the other was a highly favored Imperial Grandson; both had many eyes watching them.

But Xu Da's view of Hu Weiyong had always remained as it was before.

He did not believe Hu Weiyong was so bold as to dare to go against the Imperial House.

But he also knew that his grandson's intelligence far exceeded that of his peers; since Zhu Gaoxu did not mention anyone else and only mentioned Hu Weiyong, he at least had some certainty.